This invention relates to presses and more particularly to presses for performing a work operation on a workpiece.
Presses are commonly used in our industrial society for a myriad of mechanical fabricating operations such as piercing, punching, shape forming, resistance welding or the like. Various presses have been proposed and utilized to perform the various mechanical fabricating operations with the particular form and configuration of the press generally dictated by the particular application envisioned. Whereas a multitude of press designs have been proposed and in some cases commercially exploited, all of the prior art presses have had certain disadvantages. Generally, presses in which a large force is required to perform the desired fabrication operation have tended to be unduly large and cumbersome and, conversely, smaller, less cumbersome presses are unsatisfactory where a large force is required to perform the desired fabrication operation.
Various attempts have been made to provide a relatively small press capable of generating a relatively high force at the fabricating tool but the commercial application of these presses has been limited by problems related to leakage, durability and the like.